Help Desk AI visibility leaderboard
Help Desk tools help support and success teams resolve customer tickets. Buyers increasingly start this search inside AI assistants, which narrow 37 vendors down to a shortlist of three to five.
- Freshworks leads Help Desk with an AI visibility score of 61.5 and appears in 80% of AI answers about Help Desk (SlateIndex, Nov 3, 2026).
- AI engines named 37 Help Desk brands; Freshworks, Zendesk and Zoho hold 33% of all mentions.
- The engines disagree on the leader: ChatGPT favours Freshworks (67.4), Perplexity favours Zendesk (54.1) and Google AI Mode favours Freshworks (65).
- Zendesk gained the most visibility since the previous weekly run: +5.7 points.
- helpdesk.com is the most cited source for Help Desk, with 9.1% of citations.
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Where vendors stand in Help Desk
8 brands shown: 1 Leader, 1 Consensus Pick, 2 Authority Builders and 4 Challengers. Freshworks is the only brand above both lines.
| Brand | Mention rate | Citation authority | Answers citing own site | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshworks | 80.2% | 45.9% | 28 of 61 | Leader |
| Zendesk | 71.6% | 35.7% | 20 of 56 | Consensus Pick |
| Zoho | 54.3% | 34.9% | 15 of 43 | Challenger |
| Help Scout | 51.8% | 40.5% | 17 of 42 | Authority Builder |
| Intercom | 46.9% | 76.7% | 23 of 30 | Authority Builder |
| Jira Service Management | 45.7% | 33.3% | 12 of 36 | Challenger |
| HubSpot | 44.4% | 37.5% | 12 of 32 | Challenger |
| Salesforce | 42% | 34.5% | 10 of 29 | Challenger |
Momentum: who’s gaining and losing in AI
Change in each brand’s share of AI mentions vs four weekly runs ago.
| Brand | 4 runs ago | Now | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk | 11.1% | 11.6% | up+0.5pp |
| LiveAgent | 1.2% | 1.7% | up+0.5pp |
| Xurrent | 0.7% | 1.1% | up+0.4pp |
| Kustomer | 0% | 0.4% | up+0.4pp |
| HappyFox | 1.2% | 1.5% | up+0.3pp |
| Hiver | 0.5% | 0.8% | up+0.3pp |
| Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk | 1.1% | 1.3% | up+0.2pp |
| SysAid | 0.7% | 0.9% | up+0.2pp |
| FreeScout | 0.2% | 0.4% | up+0.2pp |
| Gladly | 0% | 0.2% | up+0.2pp |
| Pylon | 0.8% | 0.8% | no change0pp |
| Kayako | 0% | 0% | no change0pp |
| Jira Service Management | 7.3% | 7.2% | down−0.1pp |
| HelpSpot | 1.7% | 1.6% | down−0.1pp |
| Tidio | 1.1% | 1% | down−0.1pp |
| BMC Helix ITSM | 0.5% | 0.4% | down−0.1pp |
| Front | 2.4% | 2.2% | down−0.2pp |
| Helply | 0.6% | 0.4% | down−0.2pp |
| osTicket | 0.4% | 0.2% | down−0.2pp |
| Salesforce | 6.9% | 6.6% | down−0.3pp |
| ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus | 1.9% | 1.6% | down−0.3pp |
| Plain | 0.7% | 0.4% | down−0.3pp |
| Help Scout | 8.6% | 8.2% | down−0.4pp |
| HubSpot | 7.6% | 7.2% | down−0.4pp |
| Gorgias | 2.5% | 2.1% | down−0.4pp |
| Zoho | 9% | 8.5% | down−0.5pp |
| Intercom | 7.7% | 7.2% | down−0.5pp |
| HelpDesk | 5.9% | 5.4% | down−0.5pp |
| Freshworks | 13.5% | 12.9% | down−0.6pp |
| ServiceNow | 4.3% | 3.5% | down−0.8pp |
Leaderboard
Brands mentioned in AI answers in the weekly run of Nov 3. Engines disagree on the leader: Freshworks, Zendesk.
From audit to execution, Slate’s AEO team gets your brand into the answers buyers read.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days, top 8 brands. Click a name to hide or show its line.
Freshworks leads Help Desk at 61.5%. Zendesk gained 5.7 points over 1 weekly run.
Prompts in Help Desk
The buyer questions SlateIndex runs for this category every week.
Most cited sources
Where engines get their information when they answer Help Desk prompts.
| Source | Type | Share of citations | Citations | Prompts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| helpdesk.com | Brand site | 59 | 25 | |
| intercom.com | Brand site | 53 | 21 | |
| freshworks.com | Brand site | 46 | 22 | |
| zendesk.com | Brand site | 40 | 18 | |
| helpscout.com | Brand site | 26 | 15 | |
| hubspot.com | Brand site | 21 | 14 | |
| zoho.com | Brand site | 20 | 17 | |
| capterra.com | Review site | 17 | 12 | |
| g2.com | Review site | 17 | 11 | |
| salesforce.com | Brand site | 17 | 13 | |
| atlassian.com | Brand site | 16 | 11 | |
| getmacha.com | Web | 14 | 11 | |
| rework.com | Web | 12 | 9 | |
| alloysoftware.com | Web | 11 | 11 | |
| front.com | Brand site | 11 | 8 | |
| helpspot.com | Brand site | 10 | 9 | |
| youtube.com | Video | 9 | 3 | |
| pcmag.com | Media | 8 | 7 | |
| happyfox.com | Brand site | 6 | 6 | |
| itechguides.com | Web | 6 | 5 | |
| text.com | Web | 6 | 6 | |
| toolradar.com | Web | 6 | 5 | |
| gartner.com | Analyst | 5 | 2 | |
| manageengine.com | Brand site | 5 | 5 | |
| servicenow.com | Brand site | 5 | 4 |
All vendors in Help Desk
Every Help Desk brand tracked by SlateIndex.
Compare the leaders
Help Desk in AI answers: questions
Which Help Desk software do AI assistants recommend most?
Freshworks, Zendesk and Zoho are recommended most often. Freshworks leads with an AI visibility score of 61.5 and appears in 80% of answers (data of Nov 3, 2026).
Which Help Desk tool do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode recommend?
ChatGPT puts Freshworks first (67.4), Perplexity puts Zendesk first (54.1) and Google AI Mode puts Freshworks first (65).
Which sources do AI engines cite for Help Desk?
helpdesk.com (9.1%), intercom.com (8.2%) and freshworks.com (7.1%) are cited most often in answers about Help Desk.
How is the Help Desk ranking calculated?
SlateIndex asks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode 30 Help Desk buyer questions every week and scores each brand by how often and how high it appears in their answers. The methodology page has the formulas.
More in Customer Service
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Help Desk AI visibility leaderboard”, https://slateindex.ai/category/help-desk, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.